Oly Session with Greg Everett (Part I)

A few Sundays ago, I was fortunate enough to spend two hours getting coached by Catalyst Athletics‘ Greg Everett. Greg’s an amazing coach and I left with awesome cues and a crapload of stuff to work on. Enlightening…and humbling…and frustrating.

So, this month, I’ll be posting some cues and pointers that he gave me to fix my wonky shoulder (hence my nickname Igor when I do OHS’s), my squat, my push jerk, and a host of things for snatches and C&J’s.

First off, my OHS shoulder positioning was lacking a key element: squeezing my shoulder blades together BEFORE elevating my shoulders. It’s what we mean when we say “like you’re tearing the bar apart” but we haven’t harped on the importance of squeezing the shoulder blades together too much. The difference in stability with load overhead was incredible.

Secondly, my squat position for the Oly Lifts was all wrong. While the CrossFit depth for a front squat/clean/snatch is fine for lighter weights, when you go heavy, the weight will drive you to the bottom of the squat, like it or not, so I have to work on getting comfortable and strong in the bottom of a Oly squat. Ass to heels basically, while maintaining my lumbar curve, upright body position, and knees out. In order to maintain that upright body, though, I had to allow those knees to come forward of the toes. Thank god I at least had the flexibility to get to that position.

Another great pointer was for the Push Jerk. Besides dipping with control in order to maintain contact with the bar AND maximizing the drive, Greg mentioned a trick with the quads. Try tightening up the quads before the dip, so you maintain tension throughout the dip/drive. This way, you don’t have to go from loose dip to tense drive.